World Between My Teeth - Tim Meyer
Another short story collection from a new-to-me author, Tim Meyer. Let's jump right in and break each story down one by one.
The Dream Eaters - It's all a dream. Nothing can hurt you in a dream, right? Some familiar elements with a twist or two.
3 out of 5 stars
The Lemures - A brother and sister running from a crime boss who made a deal with the devil and can summon dead spirits. The story has a nice voice, if not the most satisfying ending.
4 out of 5 stars
The Cherry Collectors - Being a player can come back and haunt you.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Worlds Between My Teeth - The night just keeps getting stranger and stranger for a mall security guard. Shades of King's The Drawing of Three and The Twilight Zone. Good stuff.
5 out of 5 stars
Gingerbread Death Machine - Revenge doesn't always taste sweet. A macabre Christmas tale that seems familiar but doesn't work as well as it could.
3 out of 5 stars
Under New Skies - A high school boy writes about love and the world becoming Jurassic Park overnight. I liked the uneasiness in this one.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
The Ice King - Emmett is sure that his wife, Gertie, is slipping him an extra pill in his daily stash, trying to kill him. When he sees something humongous under the ice while fishing, he becomes convinced. Lovecraft meets Grumpy Old Men. This was a fun one.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Box Game - Yikes! That's some game!
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Armala's Hunt - Armala's sister has been abducted by an unknown assailant. She recruits her world's best tracker for hire. They follow their trail to a cave where the grisly realization of why he kidnapped Armala's sister unveils itself. A nice tale of fantasy that feels like it's the start of a story rather than the whole tale.
4 out of 5 stars
The Old Church - Umm?!? Am I missing something here? What seems like a fragment of a setup to a story.
1 out of 5 stars
The Pumpkin Tree Giveth, The Pumpkin Tree Taketh Away - The pumpkin tree has been rumored to grant wishes. For 10-year-old Jeffie, he better watch what he wishes for. Again, it feels like a scene instead of a story.
3 out of 5 stars
The Man Who Never Frowned - A used car salesman, who is down on his luck, is about to have a really bad day.
4 out of 5 stars
The Organ Harvest (An October John novella) - In 2052, a plague has hit the world and decimated 95% of the population. Detective Callahan is breaking in a rookie partner while investigating a strange case of murders. The victims bodies are barely recognizable save for one distinguishing feature, a tattoo of a white rabbit on their ass cheek. Every clue runs into a dead end and with nowhere else to turn, Detective Callahan is forced to turn Johnny Webster (aka October John), a down-on-his-luck bum that has a knack for this kind of work. You see, 12 years ago, Johnny used to be Callahan's partner.
A fun novella that introduces us to some interesting characters with October John being right up at the top. Think of Riggs from Lethal Weapon.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
All in all, a very solid collection of shorts and a novella. Meyer has an easy writing style with some good characters and plots. There were a couple that were too short for me to really get into, but that's my preference and not necessarily a dig on Meyer's writing. Definitely worthy of space on any horror fan's bookcase. Meyer looks like he has the chops to make a real name for himself in the horror community.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
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